LITERARY REVOLUTION AND DECOLONISATION IN LOUISE BENNETT'S POETRY 51

verses in JC instead of SE. This defiance is further illustrated by what
she actually says about languagess; she praises Creole, parodies
European languages and mocks Jamaicans who speaky-spoky/twang
(put on airs) while speaking English. We can place Bennett's poems on
language issues into three categories based on whether they deal with:
(i) attitudes towards the vernacular (ii) attitudes towards English; or
(iii) attitudes towards foreign languages.
 The poems "Amy Son" and "Gay Paree" are parodies of the Spanish
and French languages respectively. "Amy Son" is an account of Amy's
son whose return to Kingston from Panama has caused quite a stir
because he has not only returned with new-found (material) wealth,
but also with a new language Spanish: "Him bring back bed, him bring
gole teet, / Him bring back Spanish Twang" (JL 7-8). What is truly
revealing about the persona's account, is her judgment of the boy's
current social status: "De bwoy improve soh till him kean/ Memba
nobody name" (JL 9-10). Despite the fact that the persona clearly does
not understand Spanish, she is awed by the young man's control and
usage of the language and admires the way in which he punctuates his
conversation with Spanish phrases. However, readers familiar with
Spanish will realise that the boy's Spanish is atrocious to say the least,
but it has helped him to earn social respectability and admiration
among an unlettered crowd.
 In "Gay Paree" the persona, having just returned home, relates to
her friend her adventures in Gay Paree, France and seizes the
opportunity to reveal that she has returned with something new -
French! She recounts the anecdotal incident which transpired very
soon after she and her friend Mary landed in France; and the difficulty
they had in transcending the language barrier. We must not dismiss
as mere comedy the anecdote in the poem because it uncovers some
very salient points about the narrator's self-consciousness. Her
exclamation of "Me naw go stan fe i" (48), is an indication that she has
decided not to be outdone or overpowered, whether linguistically or
otherwise by the French. This brings forward the paradoxical attitude
of Jamaicans who think that the Creole is inferior but use it when they
go abroad as an identity marker. It is noticeable that she uses her
language as a counterattack ("An me leggo English pon dem"). However,
her conscious decision to settle down and learn the language is in direct
contradistinction to her earlier defiance not to be linguistically outdone:

 Den me sey me want fe learn i too,
 Me haffe buckle dung,